Industrial control and automation systems are often used to automate large and complex industrial processes. These types of systems routinely include wireless networks that facilitate communication between a wide range of wireless devices. Often times, wireless devices cannot communicate directly with one another because of excessive distances, physical obstructions, or other factors. Additional wireless routing devices can therefore be installed in a wireless network in order to route data to and from the wireless devices.
Before installing a wireless network, the cost of deploying the wireless network can be estimated by identifying the wireless devices to be used in the network. Unlike wired networks where it is often straight-forward to determine the number of devices and cabling requirements, wireless networks pose challenges due to the uncertainties of wireless communications. A typical system integrator may not be well-versed with wireless propagation characteristics and may tend to over-design or under-design a wireless network. An over-designed wireless network (with more wireless devices than needed) has a higher cost and a higher complexity. An under-designed network (with fewer wireless devices than needed) results in an unreliable network and requires additional time and cost for diagnosing and rectifying the faults in the network.